7-year-old Chesterfield boy spends 13 hours in a queue to see the Queen lying in state

Elijah Thorne, 7, of Chesterfield repeatedly asked his mum Toni Thorne, 33, to go to London and see the Queen’s coffin.

Toni said: “As soon as he saw on the TV that you could go and watch the Queen laying in state, he begged us to take him. But we had to wait a few days because his dad and I both work.”

But on Friday evening Elijah’s dream came true and just after Toni finished her shift at SPAR on Sheffield Road, she and her husband Jason decided to take Elijah and his two older sisters Eve, 12 and Sky, 11 on a spontaneous trip to London.

As they arrived in the capital city early on Saturday morning and joined a seven mile long queue in which they spent the next 13 hours.

Toni said: “Elijah got a bit bored at the beginning when the queue was around the back streets. But as soon as we got into central London, he loved it because he got to see the London Bridge, the London Eye and Big Ben, so it didn't really bother him to stand still in the queue.

“At some point the kids got very cold. But they still wanted to wait and see the Queen. We did ask them after about seven hours if they wanted to give up, but they said no.”

As after another six hour they got to Westminster Hall and the kids had an extra surprise – they got a chance to see the members of the royal family.

Eight Royal grandchildren – Prince Harry, Prince William, Peter Phillips, Zara Tindall, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and Lady Louise Windsor and James Viscount Severn – all gathered around the coffin at 6pm and Elijah and his family managed to see them entering the hall and paying tributes to their grandmother.

Toni said: “We weren't expecting to see any Royals. The kids were just expecting to see the Queen's coffin, so when all the Royals came down the stairs, they got a bit excited. The girls were very excited to see Harry and Elijah was just happy he could see all of them.”

After paying tributes to the Queen, the family walked back through London to the car park and drove back to Chesterfield, as Terri had to be back at work at 11am.

She said: “We got back after 1am. It was worth it though, because we got to see Prince William and Prince Harry and most importantly it made Elijah happy, so we were happy too.

“I’m also happy he didn’t ask us to go back on Monday to see the funeral. I was so tired that I was falling asleep, but Elijah had motivation to watch the entire ceremony on TV.”